Can't establish serial connection with ESP32

[eduardodelpeloso]

I can't find my serial port no matter what I do. I have a ESP32-DevKitC VE board by Espressif with a ESP32-WROVER-E module. Communication between my computer and the board is supposed to be carried out through a Silicon Labs CP2102N USB-to-UART Bridge.
However, it doesn't matter what I do, which program I run, or which driver I install, I can't stablish a serial connection. This happens in Windows 10 Pro 64-bits and also in Ubuntu!

There is no terminal command or program that I use that shows a COM port in Windows or a tty in Ubuntu... I plug the board in and out and nothing changes.

The red LED is lit, there's 5V on the 5V pin, as well as 3.3V in the 3V3 pin. That's all I know that is working.

a1.jpeg (228.86 KiB) Viewed 1972 times

a2.jpeg (209.95 KiB) Viewed 1972 times

a3.jpeg (190.02 KiB) Viewed 1972 times

The board is brand-new, bought from Digikey.

[ESP_Sprite]

Stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway as it caught a surprising amount of people in the past: Are you absolutely sure the cable you're using is not charging-only?

[eduardodelpeloso]

No, I am not! I have quite a bunch of cables at home, but I use all of them exclusively to charge devices. I will buy a new cable tomorrow, taking care that the packing explicitly states it is made not only fit charging but also for data transfer.
I will post the outcome
Thanks!

[eduardodelpeloso]

That IS the problem!
I cut one of the cables. I found 1 wire (+) inside a metalic mesh (gnd).
No data wires!
That's why my board is behaving like Tommy!!!!